Lovely Lilly

Saturday, November 19, 2011. When Columbus Animal Care & Control (CACC) opened this morning, I was ready to help Sara with Antevasin Photography, capture some fantastical pet photos to grab the attention of some adopters and rescuers!

The first dog we had the pleasure of meeting, was “Tag #34″, a female pit mix, white with brown spots. We took her outside and let her go potty on the grass, something she hadn’t been able to do since she was impounded nine days ago. She was a bit timid at first, but she ran around and was able to stretch her legs. She ran to us when we called her, and she came in close to be touched. I held her squishy face in my hands saying “Look at that face!” like I often do. She was gentle and sweet, healthy and full of life.

I’m calling this girl Lilly. She deserves at the very least, a name. When we finished with her photo session, Lilly walked back to her kennel calmly, she gave me no trouble whatsoever. She followed me in and I knelt down to remove her slip lead. I told her she was such a good girl. Hours after the above photo was taken, she was dead. Her life was taken away from her today. Lilly was killed with our tax dollars. Her body will be taken to the landfill with countless others, out near the prison, off Shatulga Rd in Columbus, GA.

What were you doing today, while this was happening? I was watching TV. It’s a pretty terrible feeling… knowing that her last days were spent in a warehouse full of barking dogs, on a cold concrete floor with no bed and no human interaction… Yet it’s comforting, to think that something as simple as taking a dog outside for a few minutes, letting her actually act like a dog, and simply petting her affectionately, was surely a positive experience in those final moments of her life. How can anybody NOT want to do that for these animals?

Why wouldn’t somebody try just a little bit harder, to make even the smallest improvement in the life of another living being, one that is in their care, and who’s life they themselves will be ending?

This article was written Sept 22nd, the same day the Mayor held a press conference announcing her Save A Pet Program. It states, “Now pets will only be put down if a vet says they need to because they are sickly and in pain or by court order for a dangerous animal.” Well ask yourselves – why did Lilly have to die? She wasn’t sick, and she wasn’t vicious. Still, the decision was made, to take Lilly’s life. I know, I know, it’s a difficult decision to make and “nobody wants to do it”, it’s only logical that we remove it from the equation altogether! We don’t want the decision to be made at all, so instead we start with the decision to NOT KILL, then we go from there! Columbus’ rescue community is large, and when we need something done, it happens!

A litter of orphaned day-old puppies, now being raised by a surrogate mom thanks to 2nd Avenue Vet! A tornado literally rips through Harris County Animal Control, all animals got out safe thanks to local Rescues! A litter of puppies that survived that tornado is currently being treated for Parvo (and yes, their lives are worth it!), thanks to Animal Ark Rescue! These stories and more, all thanks to our own community! Do not underestimate the power of compassion.

When CACC opened this morning, there were 6 empty runs, 5 of which were the long open runs (no wall/guillotine through the center, seperating sides). Remember, CACC uses the Kuranda beds in only the 8 long runs (giving countless reasons as to why they “can’t” use the beds in the regular runs) – 5 of those, and one regular run was empty this morning.

About the Kuranda beds, Thursday 11/17, Mayor Teresa Tomlinson said on her facebook page, “Some of them are so large, they block the door to the 2 sides and take up valuable space where we can put additional animals to increase are capacity. Surely, you do not want a bed to take the place of an animal’s life we are trying to save.”. Good God. Now she’s saying that they double up dogs in kennels, suggesting that the beds would decrease capacity, when in fact, CACC does NOT EVER (or maybe very rarely, do they) double-up – at the suggestion of the city vet, Dr. Seward – in an effort to decrease the spread of disease (dogs that are impounded together are kept together, but nobody is introduced to another dog while there). It’s quite disturbing, thinking that our own Mayor is holding us emotionally hostage, “Surely, you do not want a bed to take the place of an animal’s life we are trying to save” Is she really using these animal’s lives, animals like Lilly whose faces she never see’s, whose lives are often lost, to justify their own decision to NOT use the beds!?! Because I think that is what is happening!!! But, I’m even more disturbed when I realise, that there were seven empty runs when I left CACC around noon today, and still 3 dogs (that we know of) were killed!

I get it though, they HAVE to kill them… but listen. You won’t HAVE to kill them if you just implement these programs. It’s not that hard, just commit to it and let us make it happen, because we will. We will make sh*t happen.

Help Save a Life! View and Share today’s photo’s and more ACC animals photographed by Antevasin Photography in this album on facebook, or e-mail them to your friends! Tell them about Columbus animal rescue, and how they can help!

Such a beautiful girl.. so sad that she didn’t get a chance. Thank you for continuing your efforts to share the truth. It certainly isn’t the popular thing to do right now.. but I think it will pay off in the end! And Thank you to Sara for taking beautiful pictures of these dogs. They need every GOOD exposure they get, instead of the blurry, unflattering pictures the employees take.

Thank God you brought some comfort to the last hours of Lily’s life—something that the people who work around her all day long were unable/unwilling to do for her 9-day impoundment. One of the words that keeps coming to me is “bizarre”—it is downright bizarre that rescuers/volunteers have literally begged the City, “PLEASE let us help! We want to improve and save the lives of these animals—on our own dime, on our own time!”—and the City’s response is consistently: “NO. You are not allowed to do that.” There is no logic and no reason there—only too much of a willingness to end lives when there IS a better way, a better way that they are unwilling to even consider. God help Columbus Ga. and all its residents, both human and animal, as long as this city is in the hands of such incapable and uncompassionate leadership.

It was actually the journalist who stated that in the article mentioned above. But it would be interesting to hear their response to your questions… fact is, using the excuse of them “being sick” gives them a valid excuse to kill ANY pet in there, despite how easily and inexpensively treatable their conditions are. OH! This cat’s got coccidia, he has to die. LOOK! That puppy has a big wormy belly and blood in her stool, she has to die. HEY! I heard you sneeze, you gotta die. We are willing to take those animals and PAY to get them better, but even that has been rejected and our pets are being killed.

I think our mayor does not take the problems at AC as a priority. I hope everyone that can speaks out about the senseless killings that is somehow justified by our city leaders. I am embarrassed for our city. Is this how we want our city to be represented? Paint a pretty picture for everyone to see, make people think that we are doing the right thing and in reality not much has changed! I’ve written our mayor and city council with questions and I get the same fluffy answers.They want our city to grow and prosper well the way AC is being run is a big blackeye on our city. With all the different projects our city has in the making this just makes this city unattractive to people who live here, how do they think it affects the way outsiders see our city???????

So sad, but so true. A rosy, everything’s wonderful Cols, GA is being painted for the world to see, when Cols. is only WORSE than even 5 short years ago. I might add, it is worse in ALL respects. Some of you who have posted here referred me to our Mayor with my urgent pleas for help with pit bull fighting in our area; at that time 911 would NOT even dispatch for that felony. Cooperation came for that, sorta kinda; a couple of dogs were found and fighting was found..it has not stopped or slowed down one bit, but ahhh, people crimes have to come first. Is it not known that fighting dogs IS a people committed by PEOPLE? Is it now known that this “entertainment” brings guns, drugs, shootings, gambling, intimidation and worse to neighborhoods throughout Cols? This is also an aspect of Columbus that needs a thorough cleaning; can’t improve and build a better Cols without taking out the trash first. This is also an Animal Welfare issue that is being overlooked in our city, whereas small outlying counties are finding and DEALING with this issue. Outside agency help which has been freely offered for this animal welfare issue has been denied more than once; did you know that? A quote, “Came there, know about it, got total lack of cooperation.”..hmmm..Where is our city REALLY headed, ya’ll?

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Buzzard'n BigDog is a place to share information, resources, stories, photos and other media, websites, and of course my own strong opinions. I am an animal advocate first and foremost, and supporter of the No Kill Movement - one that seeks to reform our broken sheltering system and put an end to the systematic killing of healthy, treatable companion animals entering our city "shelters".

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